More About Public Art At The Wilson Station

New City Chicago has an article about the CTA's meeting last month about the art that will be designed for the new Wilson Station by internationally known artist Cecil Balmond.  CTA said they'd never seen so many people show up for meeting about art! An excerpt:

"Balmond adds that he was particularly impressed by the towering Bridgeview Bank building and the arabesque Aragon Ballroom. 'Rest assured that I will come up with a design that will work with the neighborhood’s history,' he promises. The piece will be an abstract, three-dimensional work, located on the right as you enter the station’s atrium. 'That will be a very dramatic space.'

The artist asks the crowd to share their 'questions, ambitions and fears' about the piece. Residents encourage him to learn more about the community, including its immigration and civil rights history, and let that knowledge inform his piece. 'This neighborhood has more nonprofits and social service agencies than anywhere else in the city,' notes one man. 'This is an area with a lot of heart.'"

You can read the entire article at New City's website. Exciting times for Uptown. I spent much of the last night looking through Bob Rehak's portraits of 1970s Uptown and it's hard to believe that forty years later, the poverty-stricken, depressed community he photographed so diligently will be getting public art by an artist known throughout the world.